Of Thomas Babington Macaulay [a brief life and works]

Margaret Oliphant

Oliphant's discussion of Macaulay appears in the chapter entitled "Of Thomas Babington Macaulay, and of Other Historians and Biographers in the Early Part of the Reign" from her The Victorian Age of English Literature (1892). The following text, which
George P. Landow scanned and translated into html, may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose; an acknowledgment to the Victorian Web would be appreciated. Oliphant employs brief sidebar comments in the margins of each page, sometimes as many as five, and I have used these comments as subtitles and broken some of her multi-page paragraphs into shorter sections. Some illlustrations have been added: click on these images to enlarge them.

Contrast between Carlyle and Macaulay

Thomas Babington Macaulay by Thomas Woolner.

IT is hard to conceive a stronger contrast to the
rugged and imposing figure of Carlyle than is presented by the other brilliant prose writer whose fame was already becoming known far and wide at her
Majesty's accession, chiefly through his political
work. In appearance, as in mind, in thought, purpose, and style, they are as far apart as the two poles.
It would be extremely difficult to make anything
like a heroic figure of Macaulay, or to surround him
with even pseudo-romantic attributes; and, fortunately for him, it would be quite impossible for the
most indiscreet admirer to give any but a pleasant
picture of his domestic relations. He is perhaps to
some people the less interesting for being a model of
the domestic virtues; indeed, an eminent writer
or the present day has expressed his opinion that he
was too good for any possibility of greatness. In
thought lay perhaps the greatest difference of all.
Not that Macaulay was disinclined to hero-worship
of a kind, though the characters he would have selected for that cult would scarcely have been Carlyle's favourites, but in every other respect their
methods of thought were as different as Macaulay's
polished sentences are opposed to the dithyrambic
utterances of the prophet of Chelsea. Metaphysics
Macaulay loathed; and, though there might be some
sympathy between him and Carlyle in their common
delight in history, their predilection was prompted
by entirely different aims and worked out entirely
different effects.

Macaulay's Love of History

Macaulay loved history, as one
loves Shakespeare; it was to him, in the first and
highest respect, an unending series of scenes enacted
by really living personages with whom he sympathised or differed as he might have done with his
personal friends or the political characters of his day.
The great charm to him was in the story, a story of
matchless interest and eternal freshness from the
thousand various lights in which it might be studied,
not an elaborate lesson on profound philosophical
truths delivered ex cathedra Natures. And if he drew
lessons for the day from his historical studies, they
were not concerned with abstract principles, with
the cruelty and foolishness of one half of the human
race or the subjection and misery of the other, or
with elementary truths which might have attracted
attention "at the court of Nimrod or Chedorlaomer,"
but were rather received as practical teaching of
political justice and expediency such as might besuited to the most modern questions.

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1800-1857 [biographical information]

Thomas Babington Macaulay was born at Rothley
Temple in Leicestershire in the year 1800. His
father, Zachary Macaulay, was an ardent abolitionist,
and secretary to the company formed by that party
for establishing colonies of emancipated negroes on
the west coast of Africa. Of Tom Macaulay's childhood many curious stories are told, — of the precocious learning with which he not only undertook but
carried out a "Compendium of Universal History,"
which in his mother's opinion gave "a tolerably connected view of the leading events from the Creation
to the present time," — of his poem in the style of the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," — his hymns, which
gained the approbation of no less a person than Mrs.
Hannah More, and his odd sententious speech. He
was educated originally at a small school at Little Shelford, near Cambridge, and afterwards at Trinity College, Cambridge. While at the university he distinguished himself as a speaker at the Union and also
by his contributions to Charles Knight's "Quarterly,"
started about this time with Praed, Macaulay, Moultrie, Walker, and the Coleridges, as its principal contributors. This small periodical excited a good deal
of kindly notice, and was favourably mentioned by
Christopher North in the "Noctes" as a "gentlemanly miscellany, got together by a clan of young
scholars, who look upon the world with a cheerful
eye, and all its on-goings with a spirit of hopeful
kindness." Among Macaulay's contributions were his well-known poem of "Ivry" and many other
pieces of verse, including some amatory lines in the
first number which so shocked his father — who fortunately for Tom was unaware of the authorship —
that lie forbade him to have anything; more to do
with:1; publication. Fortunately, the decorous dulness of some succeeding numbers appeased the parental wrath, and Macaulay was allowed to take up
his pen again. His principal prose contribution was
a "Conversation between Mr. Abraham Cowley and
Mr. John Milton touching; tin." '-^iit Civil War," of
which the author himself thought highly, and 'not
without reason. The "Quarterly Magazine" did
not have a very long existence, coming to an end in
its second year, owing to disputes among the contributors.

Restores the Family Fortunes

Meanwhile Zachary Macaulay, who had set up in
business with his brother-in-law, Thomas Babington,
as an African merchant, had met with reverses, his
mind being too much occupied by the anti-slavery
cause to pay a due attention to business, and his
partner being hardly equal to the conduct of affairs
of such magnitude. When Tom Macaulay left college, he found his father practically ruined, and
accepted the situation with perfect calmness and the
determination to set matters right again by his own
exertions, which, impossible as it seemed, he managed to achieve in a few years with the help of his
brother Henry. His support of his family, however,
was not limited to material services of this description; the charm of his presence among them seems
to have done more than years of unselfish toil on
their behalf could have effected to cheer and comfort their despondency. His attachment to his
brothers and sisters, especially the latter, was devoted and reciprocal, and even the silent, austere
father, broken down as he was by this last calamity,
felt revived and encouraged by the presence of the
son, who could talk politics with him over the breakfast table.

His personal appearance

A sketch given of him a short time before by his friend, Praed, may not be uninteresting.
He is described as

"A short manly figure, marvellously upright, with a bad neckcloth, and one hand in his waistcoat pocket. Of regular beauty
he had little to boast; but in faces where there is an expression
of great power, or of great good humour, or both, you do not
regret its absence."

The homely features are said, indeed, to have been
so thoroughly lit up by anything that awoke his interest, especially by that enthusiasm of talk which
was his chief delight, as to compensate the absence
of natural beauty.

Called to the Bar; Macaulay becomes a contributor to the Edinburgh

To put himself in the way of doing something for
himself and his family, Macaulay began to study for
the bar, to which he was called in 1826. He was,
however, perhaps more fitted to succeed in the world
of literature, and, in this profession, an unexpected
prospect now opened before him. A year or so before, Jeffrey had written to a friend in London to
make inquiries concerning any clever young man of
Whig principles who could be found to assist him,
as all the young- men of Edinburgh were Tories.
Macaulay was pitched upon as a likely contributor,
and exerted himself to produce an article that would
satisfy the dreaded editor of the " Edinburgh." The
result was his essay on Milton, suggested by Charles
Sumner's edition of the newly discovered treatise,
"De Doctrina Christiana." We do not profess any
particular admiration for this paper, which appears
to us to be marked by a flashy and florid exuberance
of diction which we are not accustomed to find in
his "Essays," and a general air of immaturity not
unnatural to his age, and perhaps increased by a
measure of timidity in a young author approaching
for the first time one of the great pachas of literature,
though we admit that timidity was not an ordinary
characteristic of Macaulay. The article, however,
was received with immense applause on all sides,
Jeffrey being particularly enthusiastic. "I cannot
conceive," he wrote to Macaulay, "where you
picked up that style."

The profession of literature now open to Macaulay

The path of literature was now open to Macaulay,
but it can hardly be said that he followed it with
great success for the next year or two. With the
temerity of an untried writer, he sought someone to
attack whom wiser men than he admired. The
Utilitarian school of philosophy offered a conspicuous
and easy mark, and against this he directed the
whole force of his pen in a series of articles which he
afterwards regarded with a certain shame and refused to republish. The objectionable philosophy
including in his mind the philosophers, he delivered
a similar onslaught against James Mill's "History of British India," for which, in the preface to his collected
"Essays," he afterwards made a manly apology,
Congratulating himself on the fact which he insisted
"ought to be known, that Mr. Mill had the generosity,
not only to forgive, but to forget the unbecoming
acrimony with which he had been assailed, and was,
when his valuable life closed, on terms of cordial
friendship with his assailant."

Narrowness and prejudice against political adversaries

Indeed Macaulay,
though not a malevolent, or even a naturally uncharitable man, was too ready to form an unkindly judgment of his political adversaries. The opinion of Sir
Walter Scott, expressed by him in a letter to Macvey
Napier, astounds us by its narrowness and prejudice,
and we are certain that if anyone had told him that
his constant opponent, Crocker, had any one good
quality in his composition, honest, kind-hearted
Macaulay would have been quite unable to believe
it. To the enemy who made amends he could, indeed, be reconciled. His fury at the attacks made upon him in "Blackwood" expressed itself in a studied
affectation of scorn and that rueful laugh which
described in unclassical English as proceeding from
s wrong side of the mouth; but when his old enemy,
Wilson, to whom such magnanimity was no effort,
gave unmingled praise to the "Lays of Ancient
Rome," Macaulay was most anxious that he should
be assured of the author's appreciation of the criticism.
However, Macaulay's polemics were not his only,
nor his best, work in the first few years of his writing
for the "Edinburgh." In 1827 appeared his masterly
study of Machiavelli, perhaps chiefly remembered
for the" almost casuistical ingenuity of his apology
for that great writer's cynical theories regarding
treachery and assassination. The following year
was marked by his admirable essay on Hallam's
"Constitutional History."

[Macaulay's political career begins:] Enters Parliament as member for Calne, 1830

In the good old days of patronage, literary merit
had fifty times the chance of recognition that it can
possibly have now, and Macaulay was not long in
receiving a substantial token of the admiration felt
for his genius. In 1828 the Lord Chancellor, Lord
Lyndhurst, appointed him to a Commissionership of
Bankruptcy. Two years later Lord Lansdowne,
having a pocket borough to bestow, thought it could
not be better represented than by this clever young
literary man, who accordingly entered Parliament as
member for Calne in 1830. His first speech in the
House of Commons, on the question of Reform,
established his fame as a parliamentary orator. Perhaps the greatest tribute to the position which he at
once acquired in the House was the fact that no
speech of Macaulay's was allowed to pass without
an answer, a leading debater of the Opposition always rising to reply when he sat down. A bill was
I brought in about this time to reform the Bankruptcy
system, which, among other changes, destroyed the
small office held by Macaulay; he however voted for
the bill, which was passed.

Appointed to the Supreme Council for India

In 1832 he was appointed
Secretary to the East Indian Board of Control, and
two years later was offered a post on the Supreme
Council for India, with a large salary, which, though
he had just been returned to the reformed Parliament for the new constituency of Leeds, he did not
feel justified in refusing. He therefore sailed for
India in 1834 and remained there for four years.
His chief work while in Calcutta was done as President of the Committee of Public Instruction, and of the
committee which was appointed to draw up a Penal
Code, and a Code of Criminal Procedure. The former
code, in the preparation of which he took much the
greatest share, though it is now believed that his
colleagues, especially Sir John Macleod, rendered
him considerable assistance, is one of his most enduring titles to fame. During the period of his expatriation, he continued to contribute to the "Edinburgh Review " the essays upon Sir James Mackintosh's "History of the Revolution," and upon Lord Bacon.

Return from India, 1838

A great grief awaited Macaulay when he returned
home full of joy and hope to those whom he had
left behind. The household had been a sad one in
his absence. "It is as if the sun had deserted the
earth," wrote one of his sisters, while he was away;
and Macaulay himself felt the separation as keenly,
though his incessant toil in India was on behalf of
those he loved, to restore the fallen fortunes of his
family. As soon as he had conquered in his struggle
to attain this end, he returned to England with "a
small independence, but still an independence;" but
the home he arrived at was a house of mourning.
Worn out in mind and body, with the bitter feeling
to one who had been a man of action, of helplessness and dependence, even on his own son, allying
itself with his bodily ailments, Zachary Macaulay
had died about a month before his son's return. It
was, perhaps, to distract his mind from this sorrow
that Macaulay, after a few weeks' stay in England,
during which he dashed off one of his most brilliant
essays, that on Sir William Temple, for the "Edinburgh," betook himself to Italy, where he remained for
some months. On his return, early in 1839, he at once
devoted himself to his work with renewed energy.
His first duty was to the "Edinburgh," for which he
wrote a trenchant, yet not unkindly, criticism of a
somewhat reactionary treatise on the relations of
church and State, by "A young man of unblemished
character and of distinguished Parliamentary talents,
the rising hope of the stern, unbending Tories," —
the young member for Newark, William Ewart Gladstone. Macaulay speaks with some severity of the
views expressed by Mr. Gladstone, but kindly of the
young man himself; he was too good a judge of
men to harbour any prejudice against the extreme
views of youthful genius.

Appointed Secretary of War, 1837

In the same year, Macaulay was invited to stand for Edinburgh, and
was returned practically without opposition. Lord
Melbourne, the Prime Minister of the day, was glad
to strengthen a fallen Government by the support of
so brilliant a debater, and Macaulay was appointed
Secretary of War, with a seat in the Cabinet. He
held this appointment till the fall of the Ministry,
two years later, after which time, with the exception of a short period in the years 1846-47, during
which he was Paymaster-General under Lord John
Russell's administration, he never again accepted
office.

He plans a great historical work, of which only a part was finished

He continued in Parliament, however, and was
still busy as a contributor to the "Edinburgh Review," but neither a political career nor periodical
literature seemed to offer a sufficiently wide scope
for his genius. He was anxious to achieve some
really great literary work, and had already laid out
the plan of a great historical book, extending from
the reign of James II "down to the time which is
within the memory of men still (1840) living." We
all know that this great work was never finished,
nor are we sure that it is to be greatly regretted. It
has been calculated that if the whole period had
been recorded with as much care and labour as Macaulay spent upon the fragment which he completed,
the work could not have been in less than fifty volumes, which, at the rate of progress habitual to the
writer, must have occupied a hundred and fifty years.
The only chance of completing it would, therefore,
have been by omitting the labour and research which
made the work move slowly, and furnishing us with
a hasty and superficial sketch of the whole, instead
of the vivid and complete picture of a part which has
been left to us. Such a consummation could not be
desired by anyone.

The "History," however, could not yet be got in
hand. Macaulay's first production was the one
which has, perhaps, made his name more widely
known than any others, the "Lays of Ancient Rome."
The chorus of enthusiastic applause with which the
"Lays," were received — Macaulay's veteran adversary, Christopher North, shouting with the loudest,
— has not, perhaps, been uniformly echoed by the
critics of latter days; but with the far more important audience which lies outside the little circle of
self-appointed judges, and accepts their judgments
when it agrees with them, they have never lost their
popularity. Every schoolboy knows them, to use a
favourite phrase of Macaulay's own, though schoolboys are not usually partial to poetry, — but to the
minstrelsy of Scott or Macaulay — it is much to
mention them together — no healthy-minded boy refuses to listen; nor should we think much for the
boy who could not declaim some of the fiery sentences
of Icilius, or describe exactly the manner of death
of Ocnus or Aruns, Seius or Lausulus. Of older
readers it is less necessary to speak, as he who
has known Macaulay's Lays in his childhood has no
occasion to refer to them again. There is an unfading charm in the swing and vigour of the lines
which bring to our ears the very sounds of the battle,
the clash of steel and the rushing of the horses, "the
noise of the captains and the shouting." "A cut-and-thrust-style," Wilson called it, "without any
flourish. Scott's style when his blood was up, and
the first words came like a vanguard impatient for
battle." The praise is scarcely extravagant.

Critical and Historical essays, 1843 — No other collection of this kind has ever equalled their popularity

At the same time Macaulay was hard at work collecting his various "Essays" for republication. He
had not wished to do this, considering it unadvisable
to tempt criticism with a volume of occasional
papers, however successful they might have been in
a magazine; but the importation of pirated American editions left him no choice, and the collection
was published in 1843. It was received with enthusiasm and at once attained a popularity which it has
never since lost, and which certainly no collection
of the kind has ever equalled. There is some reason
to doubt the expediency of republications of this description, though they are certainly the means of
preserving the fame of a periodical writer for future
generations; and there are perhaps few cases in
which they have any chance of becoming popular.
We are accustomed to find collected essays or articles
among the collected works of every eminent modern
writer, but the volumes which contain them are usually the least read. But Macaulay's Essays have
achieved for themselves a position in popular literature as a work which everyone delights to read, not
for conscience' sake or duty, but merely as a thing to
be enjoyed, which it may well be said no other essayist has equalled. They are so well known that
any kind of detailed criticism would be superfluous;
nor, as everyone has his own favourites, would it be
of any great use to make selections from among
them. Yet we will own to caring least for those
which deal with the political questions of the day
and most for those of a historical, or still more biographical character. The ease and charm of the
narrative in such favourite essays as those on Clive
and Warren Hastings, cannot but be felt even by
those who are most inclined to differ with Macaulay's
estimate of his subjects. To us there is an even
greater attraction in the light and yet elaborate
studies of character as demonstrated in action, such
as are contained in the papers upon Sir William
Temple and on Addison, or in the more weighty essays upon the Earl of Chatham — brilliantly begun in
comparatively early life, before the writer went to
India, and continued ten years later with greater
force and solidity of judgment towards the end of
his career as a periodical writer, — to which a fitting
complement may be added by the masterly biography of the younger Pitt supplied by Macaulay to
the Encyclopaedia Britannica and reprinted with his
other contributions on Atterbury, Bunyan, Goldsmith
and Johnson, by Mr. Adam Black, the publisher,
after the author's death.

Closes his connection with the Edinburgh Review. 1844

Macaulay was now becoming impatient of the various occupations which prevented him from getting
to work on his long-projected history. In 1844 he
definitely closed his connection with the "Edinburgh," which he had lately felt to be a great drag
on him, having contributed only two more articles
— those on Frederick the Great and Madame d'Arblay, respectively, — after the publication of the collected "Essays." All this time he was attending to
his Parliamentary duties, and some of his most telling
speeches were delivered in the Parliament of 1841-47.
His appointment as Paymaster-General in 1846
obliged him to seek re-election at the hands of his
constituents, and, though no longer unopposed, as
in 1841, he was returned by a triumphant majority
over his adversary, Sir Culling Eardley Smith.

Macaulay loses his seat in Parliament [because of his defense of Roman Catholic civil right]

Much
sectarian opposition, however, had been excited
against him by his action on the question of the
grant to Maynooth College, and at the general election in 1847, to the lasting shame of the constituency, Macaulay lost his seat. Wilson, his old
literary adversary and political opponent, had risen
from a sick-bed to record his vote for the victim
of what was generally felt to be an unjust persecution, and the public sympathy was freely expressed,
but Macaulay himself apparently did not feel the
loss. It gave him, at any rate, a great deal of additional leisure to devote to his "History" which
was now so far advanced that the two first volumes
were ready for publication in the ensuing year.

First two volumes of The History of England — Its success phenomenal

The success of the "History of England " from the
first day of its appearance was phenomenal. A first
edition of three thousand copies was exhausted in
ten days, a second of the same size was entirely
bought up by the time it appeared, and a third of
five thousand was so nearly exhausted six weeks
after the original issue, that it was found necessary
to print two thousand additional copies to meet the
immediate demand. The excitement aroused by its
appearance may be to some extent estimated by the
fact that the Society of Friends thought it necessary
to send a deputation to remonstrate with Macaulay
for the view he had taken of William Penn. The
honest Quakers were no match for the brilliant dialectician, who successfully reasserted his views on
the subject, but it has since been proved that they
had the right on their side. Lockhart wrote to Croker,
who was waiting to measure out to Macaulay such
criticism as had been meted to his own edition of
Boswell in days gone by, — that he had read the
"History" through "with breathless interest," but
admitted that it contained so many inaccuracies that
the greatest injury would be done to the author's
feelings by telling the simple truth about his book.
Croker, however, wrote so savage a review that, in
face of the general public approval, it hardly excited
any notice at all, though his strictures were hardly
more severe than the criticisms of many later writers.
For the time, however, opposition was hopeless, and
the chorus of approval was hardly broken by one
dissentient voice. Macaulay himself told an amusing
anecdote illustrating its popularity at the time. "At
last," he wrote to his friend, T. F. Ellis: "I have attained true glory. As I walked through Fleet Street
the day before yesterday, I saw a copy of Hume at
a bookseller's window with the following label:
'Only /"2 2s. Hume's History of England in eight
volumes, Highly valuable as an introduction to Macaulay!'"

The absolute continuity of the story and the masterly sketches of character

Whatever may be its value as a correct record of
fact, Macaulay's "History" is certainly a very remarkable production of literary art. It is perhaps
one of the greatest efforts in narrative that has ever
been made. From beginning to end we have avast
history — in the original sense of the word which we
usually denote by lopping the first syllable — flowing
on in a perfectly unbroken stream, the thousand little
rivulets that converge into the main flood neither
neglected nor magnified into undue importance, but
firmly and skilfully guided into their proper places as
the component parts of a great whole. Nothing is
more striking- in Macaulay's work than this absolute
continuity of story. There is no lack of adornment,
of literary grace of style and picturesque detail, nor is
there any point in which MacauLiy's genius is more
amply displayed than in the masterly, if occasionally
prejudiced, sketches of character with which the
"History" is interspersed; but everything is subordinated to the central necessity of allowing no break
or obstacle to the narrative. Thus we get those exquisite little portraits in miniature which Macaulay
threw in with such wondrous skill when he had to
present a new character upon the scene whose antecedents or peculiarities it was necessary to know,
but whom there was no time to describe at length.
Even the more finished and elaborate studies of individuals hardly distract the attention from the main
story longer than it would take a reader to turn aside
from the text of his book to look at a full page illustration; and these are only given when required as
a foundation of knowledge on the subject, to give
some idea what manner of man is presented before
the audience; for as to the real character of each actor,
he will soon show that in the only reliable manner,
by his actions. Macaulay's enemies are accustomed
to say that these characters are only drawn with
exactitude when it suits his partisan purposes to
make them true; otherwise they are exaggerated by
partiality or discolored by prejudice, and the story
of their lives is told in such a manner as accords
with the political views of the writer. To our mind
such charges are brought on too general a scale; but
we are obliged to admit that in some cases they are
not without foundation. We have already said that
Macaulay often found it hard to do justice to his
political adversaries, and we cannot contend that he
was more impartial in the matter of statesmen of
days long gone by, to whose' principles or conduct
he was opposed. To him the men of the court of
James II were as real and living as those among
whom he lived; and among the former, as the latter,
he supported his friends and attacked his enemies.
He hated Malborough as he hated Croker; he spoke
his hatred out, as was his nature, and he refused to
see any redeeming points in the character of either
adversary; we may say, indeed, that he was incapable of seeing them. We will not even deny that in
the heat of his animosity he may have distorted facts;
for every student of history knows with what readiness those elastic trifles will assume all varieties of
shape according to the glasses through which they
are observed. But these, at the worst, are in a few
extreme instances, for which we at least are ready to
forgive one of the only historians who has been able
to make his readers live in the period of which he
writes.

Macaulay's work like the unfolding of a drama before our eyes

Coloured as his narrative may be, it is yet history,
and history of the most profitable kind. The lecture-dried student, whose interest in history only tends to
the answering of questions at an examination, or at
best to endowing posterity with a set of cut and dried,
annals for the benefit of future candidates for honours, finds little use in Macaulay. He says both too
much and too little, and is too entertaining for the
conscientious reader to study in working hours. It
is like Partridge's judgment on the theatre, when he
preferred the king in Hamlet, who was so obviously
acting a part, to the quiet, little man, Garrick, who
spoke and moved as an ordinary mortal might have
done. No one could possibly read one of Dr. Gardiner's valuable works without feeling that he was
studying history; when we read Macaulay, on the
other hand, we feel more like the spectators of a great
natural drama unrolling itself before our eyes. We
are not even hearing the story told by one of the
actors, but actually looking on at what is taking
place. This, is to our mind the great superiority of
Macaulay's work over those of more exact historians.
Perhaps we may take an illustration of our meaning.
suppose that we wished to form a correct idea of St.
Peter's at Rome or St. Mark's at Venice. There are
numberless works in which we could find exactly
measured designs of the plan, elevations and sections of the buildings, from which we might gain a
great deal of practical knowledge and be able to
impart it to others. But would anyone suggest that
we should thus get anything like so real an idea of
St. Peter's as could be derived from seeing one great
picture of the whole, even if the artist had made the
facade a yard too long or the cupola a couple of feet too
high. So in Macaulay's great picture of the past, the
reader can see at a glance more of the real life of the
world as it was, than the most toilsome examinations
of historical evidence can afford him. Not that we
undervalue the latter. When the reader has taken
in the sense and the story of the picture, by all
means let him go and verify his measurements.

Raised to the peerage as Baron Macaulay of Rothley, 1857

Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey.

There is not very much more of Macaulay's life to
record. The third and fourth volumes of the History
were published in 1855, and the fifth and last was
not finished at his death. It was a great disappointment to him to be unable to carry it further on, at
least to the reign of Anne. In 1853 he was induced
to make a collection of his speeches for reasons
similar to those which had led to the publication of
the Essays. His parliamentary duties were resumed
for a while, for Edinburgh had repented in sackcloth
and ashes, and, on the resignation of his old colleague, Sir William Gibson Craig, put him at the head
of the poll, though he was not able to be present to
conduct the contest in person. His health, however,
was failing, and, after being many times over-persuaded by his constituents, he insisted on resigning
his seat in 1856. The next year he was raised to
the peerage as Baron Macaulay of Rothley. He
still worked at his History in his latter years and contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica the articles
of which we have spoken. His last days were peaceful, though somewhat overclouded by melancholy,
and his end was peace itself, the gentle and easy
transition that comes to some who scarcely seem to
die but merely cease to breathe. Perhaps this was
the end of Enoch; Macaulay died in the last days of
the year 1857, and was buried in Westminster Abbey,
in Poet's Corner, at the feet of the statue of Addison.